The State Environment Minister, N. Mariyam Pichai was killed in a road accident at Tiruvalarkurichi village near Paadalur about 30 kms from Tiruchi on Monday morning. He was 61.

Mr. Mariyam Pichai was proceeding to Chennai from here by car to take part in the oath taking ceremony of the new MLAs in the Assembly, when the car in which he was travelling rammed a container lorry from behind at about 7 a.m. The Minister was killed on the spot. The body was later brought to the Government Headquarters Hospital here for postmortem.

Mr.Mariyam Pichai had garlanded the statue of King Perumpidugu Mutharaiyar at Cantonment in the city on his birth anniversary and was proceeding to Chennai, when the tragedy struck.

Mr. Mariyam Pichai, hailing from Sangiliandapuram area in the city, was elected from the Tiruchi West Assembly constituency in the recently Assembly elections, and was a first time MLA. He defeated the then Transport Minister, K. N. Nehru by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Mr. Pichai had unsuccessfully contested against Mr. Nehru in the 2006 Assembly elections from Tiruchi II constituency which has now been rechristened as Tiruchi West constituency.

Mr. Pichai was a two time Tiruchi Corporation Councillor and was a former urban district secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

PTI adds

Minister for Sports and Youth welfare N.R.Sivapathy was also injured when their vehicle collided with another moving ahead of their convoy while they were proceeding to Chennai after garlanding the statue of community leader Perumpidugumutharyar, police sai